This book stumbles right out of the gate.
Fantasy master Yolen here offers a tale of a half-foal, half-boy.
Not quite a year after the appearance of a mysterious white light, an old pony at a boarding stable gives birth to a baby centaur. With only 13-year-old Arianne, her mother, a friendly veterinarian, the stable manager and Arianne’s disabled, 6-year-old brother, Robbie, on site, they hatch a plan to keep the baby out of public view. Soon, however, the whole world knows, drawing even Arianne’s estranged rock-star father, who comes to cash in. Unfortunately, this intriguing premise doesn’t lead to a successful novel. The characters all feel like stereotypes, especially the father and chirpy Robbie, and the humans seem to accept an actual live centaur extraordinarily readily. One rule of adding fantasy elements to a story set in an otherwise real world is that the real-world details must ring true, and that is ultimately the greatest flaw here: Yolen doesn’t get the horse details right. Whether it’s incorrect vocabulary or flubbing the usual routine of a boarding stable, Yolen’s real horses are never real enough for her fantasy centaur to come to life. The story is set in 1965, apparently as an excuse for Robbie’s thalidomide-induced birth defects, but the setting is mostly just shown through mentions of contemporary television shows; the veterinarian’s service in Vietnam seems impossible, given the timeline.
This book stumbles right out of the gate. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9664-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Affecting and hopeful.
A stray dog finds her destiny amid the chaos of a Southern California wildfire.
Wombat is a small dog with stubby legs and “silly ears / that look like furry cookies”—almost impossibly cute in Bricking’s occasional pencil-style vignettes. She’s mastered the art of survival, so when a mysterious internal voice prods her to go toward the fire, she resists. “The wrong way is the right way. / The right way is the wrong way,” the voice insists. When she tells fellow stray Silas about it, he tells Wombat she’s a “destiny dog,” bound to “find their person / before their person / can find them.” Convinced, she decides to follow the mysterious instructions. Meanwhile, Henry, a boy who’s leery of dogs, loves the bats at the wildlife rehabilitation center where Mama Ro, a veterinarian, works; his Mama J is a librarian. Henry and Barnabas, a fruit bat at the center, are both uprooted by the fire, and their paths converge with Wombat’s at an emergency shelter. The third-person perspective shifts from character to character in clusters of free-verse poems that fully immerse readers in each one’s experiences in turn. This extra-concentrated delivery of Applegate’s typically spare writing proves effective, balancing terror and sadness with heart and humor. Henry has light brown skin, Mama Ro has curly black hair and brown skin, and Mama J presents white.
Affecting and hopeful. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780063221178
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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